The Letter
by Cheddar the Cheese
Summary: When a letter is found in the Gyffindor's common room, a few students learn what people on the out side see them as. Please read/review!


The Letter  
  
Note: The inspiration for this fic came while I was on an airplane. I was sitting there listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and got to thinking, what do the other houses really think of Gyrffindor. This is trying to explain it a little bit but I'm not sure I said it the way I thought it.. Or something like that. What do you think. Please join my yahoo group! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DifferentWorldfanfic and review!  
  
I don't own any of it! Stop asking me that!  
  
***  
  
It lay on the table in the center of the room when the tired years came in one evening. It had been an exciting day watching their very own Harry Potter once again smash the Slytherins in a Qudditch game that lasted no more than seven minutes and so it was no wonder that it took one of them a moment or so to see the letter lying to the table. Helena was the curious one and while her friends warned her that perhaps she shouldn't open it, she walked over to the small round table and did just that.  
  
The envelope was new and crisp in her hands. She could feel the warm breath of her best friend Andrew snaking down her collar. She repressed the urge to giggle. She knew he was doing it on purpose. Across the room, Laurell bounced into a chair and with brightly shining eyes asked Helena if she planned to open it any time soon.  
  
With a sly grin, the young Gryffindor opened it slowly and notice two pieces of Parchment flutter to the floor. Picking up one of them she looked over at Andrew who now held the other in his hand. He shrugged as Helena opened hers to read aloud.  
  
"To the reader of this letter,  
  
Here at this school, there has long been a rivalry between the four houses. Any first year can tell you that. But the other day I was approached by a student from a house not your own. This student asked that the enclosed letter be delivered to your common room. After reading it myself I decided that the contents of the letter are not just for the select few who read it so I ask that once you have finished with it, please pass it along. There are some words better left unsaid, it is true, but never let it be said that these are any of them. Words are some of the most powerful magics in the world. Don't waste it.  
  
Signed,   
  
Albus Dumbledore."  
  
Helena looked up from the letter in her hand. It was strange. She knew her headmaster was eccentric but this was something she had never expected from the old man. "Wow," said Andrew beside her. "I wonder what it says."  
  
Laurell rolled her eyes. "Well then read it already!" She sighed exasperated. Andrew shrugged and opened the letter. Helena sank into a near by chair and watched the snow as it began to drift past the window.  
  
"To the Gryffindor who reads this,  
  
When I was a young child, my mother told me many stories about the four houses at Hogwarts. About Ravenclaw with it's thinkers and Slytherin with it's schemers. About Hufflepuff with it's loyal friends. But most of all she told me about Gryffindor. Gryffindor with it's brave fools. I thought they all seemed like a bunch of action heroes from the comic books my muggle uncle used to bring me.  
  
On the train in my first year, I searched the train high and low for some sign of these humans who surpassed all mortal reckoning but found none. It never once crossed my mind that I could ever be one of you and at times I wonder if it would have made a difference if I had. I doubt it though.  
  
I say this a person. Not as one from another house. There are hundreds of those. People from other houses I mean. And there will by thousands once I am dead and gone. But tonight I a not Ravenclaw or Slytherin or Hufflepuff. Tonight I am a human being who only ants the acceptance of those he so long admired.  
  
So, to the mighty Gryffindors. That is to whom this letter should be addressed. For now that I have seen you as the house here that wields all the might and power that others dream about, the one thing that sets you apart from the others is your humanity. You are all so wonderfully human. It is what makes you Gyrffindors and no gods. It is that which dims out any light of radiance. You with your flaws and your passions. Your morality.  
  
I know that there is a great war coming. Any fool alive today, any one can tell you that these days. We don't need the minister to tell us. We all know it. And we will all fight it in our own way. The Ravenclaws will be the brains of it. They will plan each strategies and break each code. And they will live. The Hufflepuffs with fight. I can see it now. Armies of our friends and enemies dressed in yellow and black for miles and miles. For if nothing else, they are loyal to the end. And many of them will live. And the Slytherins, though I know how you despise them, they too will be a part of this war. You may think of them all as Death Eaters but that is only because you do not see them as clearly as you could. They are humans too. They will fight this war. They will be our spies and our allies. Our backstabbers, some of them. But still, they too will live. Yes, if any, That house knows how to live.  
  
But you, you will not simply live. You will be the leaders of our armies. The ones who will lead great raids on the dark forces that even now I can feel raising in the darkness beyond the window here. And you will not live. Oh no. You will not live because you are the ones who will survive. I mean, the others of us who can fight, will. But to fight like that. To look another human being in the eye and kill them in cold blood, that does something to a man. No, while the rest of us spend our lives after the war living out nightmares and barely existing and being told how lucky we are to be alive, you will live, you will have the courage to do what you must and then, you will be brave enough to go to sleep without the fear of a nightmare.   
  
But remember something. To survive, you must first live. You will be our leaders but you and your foolishness may get you dead before you even the chance we need you to take. I wasn't sure I should write this. After all, I am only one of the multitude. What would any of you have to listen to me? But I have said my piece now. I beg you each remember what I have said here tonight. I don't think any of us have a chance at life if you do not help us. We need our human gods. It's why there is religion. Remember that.  
  
So as a member of another house, I wonder how I should sign this now. As my name? No, for I am nothing to you. No, I am the glass of the pane I look out this night. I am strong until hit just right when I will shatter. And you? You are Gryffindors. The frost. You encroach upon us each night as we sleep, stealing away our limelight. And you are cold and aloof from all of this. This petty life that the rest of us lead. And should you get cold enough one day, you will crack us all. In the summer you will melt away from our lives until we come back here. It is all a great cycle and we are slaves to it. So with that said, I think I shall retire now. For what more could the glass have to say to the frost?  
  
Signed:  
Frost"  
  
For a moment there was silence. At some point, the three of them had been joined by a few others. Some were crying. Laurell felt a cold tear roll down her face. She didn't bother to wipe it away. Harry Potter sat in the corner. He was lost in his own world. She wondered what he must be thinking. Helena looked like a lost child... They all did. To think, all this time, they had had a weight such as this on their shoulders yet none of them knew it. It was almost to much.  
  
Letting the letter fall from her hand, Laurell walked over to the window seat and curled herself into a tight ball there on the ledge. She knew that if she got any closer to the panes, she would see the frost kissing the glass and that, that was something she didn't think should be.  
  
***  
  
Please take a moment to reveiw 


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